In the field of remote control of unmanned ground vehicles, perhaps the most common application known to everyone are slot cars running on a track. Slot cars are controlled with a handheld accelerator or throttle that is usually wired to conductive rails that transfers electricity to the car via electric shoe contacts riding on the rails. Another well-known application is radio controlled cars. Radio controlled cars are usually operated by a 27 or 49 MHz radio communication system, where different channels provide different information to the car for controlling speed, steering etc.
Digitalization has provided improved control technologies also in the field of remote control of toys, as in the system presented in EP 1583594A2, where multiple cars racing in a single slot may be addressed individually. Similarly, short range digital communication systems have entered the field of radio controlled cars, as can be seen e.g. in GB 2468126A, where a digital consumer device, like a mobile phone provided with a Bluetooth® connection, may be used as a radio control device for a toy. Taken further, as in KR 2013107405A, an application installed on a touch screen smart device may be used to control the direction and speed of a wirelessly operated device by recognizing the direction and moving distance of a touch or swipe on the touch screen. A fair assumption of where these and other developments is leading would be that also slot cars become increasingly wireless, i.e. radio controlled, and that the proprietary classic throttles may be replaced by smart digital devices.
The achievements in technology have made possible versatile and effective control systems of unmanned ground vehicles, such as toy cars. However, excitement and joy in playing with toy cars comes mostly from competition against others. A slot car track is almost by definition a racing ground, and also radio controlled vehicles lend themselves easily to various activities which competitive elements. While known solutions are focusing on control of individual devices, the very reason for acquiring such devices, i.e. having fun with others, has received less attention. There is thus a need for a solution that enhances the quality of the overall performance and payback of remote controlled toys and other ground vehicles in terms of competition and amusement through gaming with physical devices.
However, as especially RC cars continue to get more and more powerful, the control of the car becomes more difficult. This difficulty often renders the utility of the vehicle and/or results in damage to the vehicle. Accordingly, there exists a need more advanced approaches of controlling powerful toy cars. It is an object of the invention to introduce such control.
It is also an object of the invention to bring the experience of racing with toy cars at least closer to the level of car video and computer games, where car performance, environmental circumstances and other gaming parameters are controllable to a much greater extent than with present toy car systems.